Western Athletic Conference coaches and members of the media who cover the WAC don’t expect much out of the University of Texas at San Antonio in its second season of football.

In a new pre-season poll, WAC coaches predict that the Roadrunners will finish last in the seven-team conference — behind Louisiana Tech, Utah State, San Jose State, New Mexico State, Idaho and Texas State.

Media members selected to participate in the poll also picked Louisiana Tech No. 1.

And like the coaches, they expect that UTSA will bring up the rear.

The Roadrunners did not receive a single first-place vote from any of the coaches or media members polled.

According to a report by Salt Lake City’s ABC TV affiliate, Utah State head coach Gary Andersen isn’t much of a fan of pre-season prognostication, insisting that these early polls “don’t get you rings and they don’t get you to bowl games.”

But they can sometimes come back to haunt those who were involved in the prognosticating.

The media predicted in advance of the 2011-2012 college football season that Oklahoma and Texas A&M would finish with the top two records in the Big 12.

They finished fourth and seventh in the conference, respectively.

I’ve got UTSA ranked at No. 4 in the WAC — behind Louisiana Tech, Utah State and San Jose State.

The prediction here is that Texas State will finish sixth — ahead of only Idaho.

Picking Louisiana Tech to repeat as WAC champs is easy. The Bulldogs were 8-5 last year (6-1 in conference play), earning themselves a post-season game against TCU in the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl.

The Roadrunners are no match for the Bulldogs at this point. But there is no reason why a program led by Larry Coker can’t hold its own against New Mexico State or Idaho, which finished 2-5 and 1-6 in the WAC, respectively, last season.

“My expectations for the team this year are high,” Coker told reporters at the WAC’s media day in Las Vegas last week. “Maybe we aren’t supposed to win since we are a young program, but our players don’t believe that. I certainly don’t believe that and our staff doesn’t either.”

Bobcats fans will certainly argue that Texas State is superior to UTSA, with a battle-tested program guided by Dennis Franchione.

But the Bobcats will have a tough time against non-conference opponents this season. Texas State’s non-conference schedule includes games against Houston, Texas Tech and Stephen F. Austin.

UTSA’s non-conference schedule is less brutal, with a list of opponents that includes South Alabama, Texas A&M-Commerce and Northwestern Oklahoma State.

UTSA will wrap up its lone season in the WAC with a Nov. 24 home game against the Bobcats.

That could mark the beginning — or the end — of a bitter in-state rivalry.

The Roadrunners will move to Conference USA in 2013.

Texas State will join the Sun Belt Conference after this season.

UTSA believes it came out a winner in the conference realignment scramble.

The Roadrunners would love to prove to C-USA officials that they were worthy of an invite.

And they wouldn’t mind proving wrong those who predicted that they would finish last in the WAC.

Securing a better record than Texas State would merely be icing on the cake.

Fishing trip

If you hear some laughter coming from the Bexar County Courthouse, don’t be surprised.

The chuckler may be Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, who is no doubt having a tough time concealing his feelings about the Miami Marlins.

This was supposed to be the turnaround year for the Marlins, who teased San Antonio with the prospect of potentially relocating to South Texas if the team couldn’t get a new ballpark in South Florida.

The Marlins were using San Antonio of course.

In the end, the team got precisely what it wanted: New digs built on the site of the old Orange Bowl.

But that turnaround hasn’t happened.

Even with the lure of a new stadium, the Marlins rank in the bottom half of the league in attendance.

Through 51 home games, the Marlins drew an average of 28,560 fans to their new ballpark. That ranks Miami 18th among Major League Baseball’s 30 teams based on turnstile count.

Now, last season, Miami ranked 28th in attendance. So they’ve improved this season.

But 18th place isn’t much to brag about — not when you factor in the appeal of a new stadium and the money expended to build that ballpark.

Wolff is probably amused by the Marlins’ frustrations on the field, as well.

At press time, Miami was in fourth place in the five-team National League East division.

The Marlins were nine games under .500 and 14.5 games behind division-leading Washington.

It gets better, if you’re a jaded South Texan who believes that the Marlins used San Antonio. The team has traded several of its players. And its president, David Samson, the person who tried to convince San Antonio leaders that the team was serious in its consideration of a relocation to San Antonio, has recently had to defend those trades publicly.

It’s never good when the front office has to argue that it’s not engaging in a “fire sale.”

Don’t blame local officials, who had to endure the Marlins’ posturing here several years ago, if they privately root for a meltdown in Miami.

And if you are a fan of the Marlins, regardless of where you live, don’t hold your breath waiting for that turnaround.

W. SCOTT BAILEY is a staff writer for the San Antonio Business Journal. He can be contacted at sbailey@bizjournals.com.